GREETINGS FROM AMARILLO, Texas (TX) USA
Back into Texas today and for a large part of it we were getting our kicks – on Route 66 !
(Now you are going to have that song stuck in your head !)
Old Route 66 is largely just bits and pieces these days with Interstate 40 the main road by-passing many of the old towns. But we managed to drive on some of the original road and take in some of the locations where the legend of the road lives on.
After leaving Santa Fe, we headed toward Las Vegas – but thankfully the New Mexico version and not the Nevada version.
Unfortunately the weather was against us today – showers or rain pretty much all the way after the first hour or so on the road – and not only the weather but a few of our proposed stops became non-events. Our first stop at about the point where we connected with I 40 was a town called Santa Rosa. An anomaly to its dry desert surrounds, it has a number of lakes that are actually sinkholes full of water formed in the limestone bedrock of the area. One is the famous “Blue Hole” which is 25 metres deep and is popular for diving. Well we figured it probably wouldn’t be very blue under a very grey sky but when we got there it was actually closed off for access – so we don’t know if it was blue or not !
Santa Rosa actually has another claim to fame as it was used for the freight train scene in the movie of John Steinbeck’s book “The Grapes of Wrath”.
Our second stop was a bit more successful at Tucumcari, a bit further along I 40. Some of the towns on Route 66 which were bypassed by the Interstate have tried to revive themselves – Seligman in Arizona is probably the best example. In Tucumcari, the Tepee Curios is doing its best to keep Route 66 alive and is full of – well, junk I suppose – all themed around Route 66. But it was a bit of fun and we spent $6.49 and contributed to the “neon light fund” to do our bit to keep it going !
Right on the New Mexico-Texas border is a town called Glenrio. Well it isn’t really a town any more but has a couple of relics of old buildings – an old motel and old service station. The service station actually has an inhabited house behind it and I think they are doing all they can NOT to keep the Route 66 legend alive – there are “Private Property”, “No Trespassing” and “Beware of the Dog” signs all along the front of the property and as soon as we got out of the car to take photos there was a chorus of barking dogs greeted us ! So we snapped a couple of photos and were on our way !
Old Route 66 gas station at Glenrio
Next stop was the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, TX. It bills itself as being the geographical midpoint of Route 66 – 1,139 miles from each original endpoint of Route 66. The owner of the cafe between 1990 and 2012 is said to be the inspiration for Flo of “Flo’s V-8 Cafe” in the movie “Cars”. BUT – the cafe was closed when we got there so no trying the special – Ugly Crust Pie !
Driving on through the rain, our last stop was just on the outskirts of our destination for the night in Amarillo. Back in 1974, a guy with too much money backed two architects who decided to create a Cadillac Ranch. It is actually an art installation comprising 10 old Cadillac cars buried front first up to their windscreens and angled corresponding to the angle of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Now writing graffiti on them or otherwise spray-painting the vehicles is actively encouraged. They are located in a corn field with a dirt “road” access from the frontage road just off the Interstate. With all the recent rain, the access was a mud bath – and it was raining – so we drove on to our hotel with faint hopes the weather might improve later or tomorrow morning.
Having checked in and had time to think about it, we decided there was no way the weather was going to improve enough to clear up the mud around the Cadillac Ranch to get close enough to get photos. So there was only one thing to do. We headed to Walmart and bought 2 pairs of “disposable” shoes for $5.98 each, a brown towel for $1.97, 2 cans of spray paint for $3.96 each and back we went.
Well we managed to wade our way through the corn field to the cars, spray paint our initials on one of the cars, end up with mud up to our ankles, get some photos, slide our way back to the car, hand over our half used spray cans to a guy about to embark on the same ridiculous plan – and had a lot of fun in the process ! We removed our mud caked shoes, wiped our feet clean with our brown towel and placed them all in the roadside garbage bin before heading back to our hotel with childish grins on our faces !
Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo TX
Adrienne & Neil were here !
The Staybridge Suites where we are staying had their “Evening Social” going – free dinner and drinks – so whilst we put on some much needed washing in the guest laundry, we sat down to a very tasty Chicken Alfredo Pasta and salad, a Shiner Bock Texas craft beer for me and a Stone Cellars Chardonnay from California for Adrienne – and a few more laughs about our afternoon shenanigans ! So we’ve certainly got our kicks on Route 66 !!
Tomorrow we head to our first new state for this trip – Oklahoma !
Today’s Trivia – “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” starring Harrison Ford and Sean Connery was filmed in Amarillo (the four riding into the sunset at the end) !